Bedford, region faces staffing shortages

Joy Richard jrichard@wickedlocal.com

Thursday

Nov 29, 2018 at 3:01 AMNov 29, 2018 at 11:50 AM

Unemployment in Massachusetts is below 4 percent; consumer confidence is up; and wages have even begun to edge upward. All positive economic signs - unless you're one of the many small businesses looking to hire part-time or entry-level workers.

Many of those small businesses are struggling to find workers, battling a confluence of higher costs, poor transportation and a steadily shallowing pool of candidates.

Higher costs

According to Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, paying the state minimum wage is proving difficult. Currently $11 per hour, the minimum will jump to $12 in January 2019. Hurst said for local businesses, that number is really $15-16 per hour because owners are paying for state-mandated insurance and sick days.

"You can only raise prices so much before you have lower sales," said Hurst. "That is the dilemma."

He said many entry-level or part-time jobs are going to teenagers and residents new to the U.S. With that said, Hurst pointed to lower numbers of teens choosing to work, due to school, extra curricular activities, or other obligations. He said 39 states have lower teen wages. Eleven, including Massachusetts, do not. A teen wage is designed for workers ages 14 to 17 and is slightly less than minimum wage, giving teenagers the money and experience they are looking for at a lower cost to local businesses.

Many seasonal positions tend to be part-time and are held by secondary wage earners, people with more than one job, a spouse looking to pull in extra income, retirees and immigrants. But many of these people find another stumbling block to taking these kinds of jobs in this area: transportation.

Finding a way to work

It's no secret housing costs are high in many communities northwest of Boston. For lower-wage earners, it just is not feasible to pay a mortgage and taxes in some towns. So that means commuting, made complicated and tedious by a dearth of public transportation. The struggle to find transportation has become so real that in some extreme cases it has pushed businesses to cut back on hours, forced managers and owners to work the floor of restaurants and shops, or even forced some stores to close.

Burlington and Bedford are prime examples of places where businesses, particularity restaurants, are having a difficult time hiring. According to state Rep. Ken Gordon, D-Bedford, towns like Burlington struggle to find part-time and full-time help because many restaurants are open late, but modes of public transport, which is also limited in the area, do not run into the early morning hours.

This is where the push for later and more accessible public transportation came from. Gordon said he has been working with the Middlesex 3 Coalition since he was elected to evaluate and create more viable modes of public transportation.

Gordon said he and the group are working with the state to fund a shuttle project, which would help bring potential help into the Bedford/Burlington area. He said the hope is to have something in place for the holiday season, a key time for retailers.

A similar push is happening along Interstate 495 through the 495/MetroWest Suburban Edge Community Commission, which is co-chaired by Rep. Kate Hogan, D-Stow.

Hogan said a recent report from the Public Policy Center at UMass Dartmouth, found, "...the 495/MetroWest region is a net labor importer. More than 33,000 residents commute to Boston for work; while nearly 200,000 people who work in the region commute from outside of it, most commonly from Worcester, Framingham, and Boston. On average, 495/MetroWest residents who commute out of the area for work earn higher wages than those commuting into the region."

The report also said, "...fewer than 4 percent of the region’s workers use public transportation," to get to their jobs.

"A robust regional transportation system is vital to ensuring inclusive economic growth and access to our region’s employment opportunities," stated Hogan. "While there have been noteworthy successes making a meaningful difference in access to transit and jobs – such as the growth of the Hudson Shuttle from a pilot program to the permanent MetroWest Regional Transit Authority Route 15 and the transit services for residents of all abilities provided by the CrossTown Connect – there is still a lot of work to be done."